HYDE FC

 On this day in football, 27 July.......no hiding!!!!

in 1885 - Hyde FC was formed, this the club, most famous for being at the wrond end of the record defeat in English football. 26-0 to Preston North End (1887)! 

Hyde FC will always be remembered for the record 26-0 FA Cup defeat suffered at the hands of Preston North End in 1887. But the club, founded two years earlier, was anything but a collection of cotton-town bumpkins. It was a highly ambitious outfit which wanted to compete with the best sides in the North.

The 1887-88 season actually proved to be very successful and at the end of it Hyde met Newton Heath (now Manchester United) in a match the local press termed the unofficial championship of Manchester.

Hyde enjoyed a very productive period at the turn of the 20th century when the club won four league titles. It moved to Ewen Fields in 1906 after merging with Hyde St George’s and taking over the Saints’ place in the Lancashire Combination.

In 1917, Hyde folded because of what was termed war reaction but in 1919 there were demands for the club to be re-established. United was added to the name because of a match between two groups which used to meet in the market place: the Forty Gang and the Discharged Soldiers and Sailors.

The inter-war years were a purple patch. In the 1920s, Hyde won five Manchester League championships. This record allowed them to win election to the Cheshire County League in 1930, and four years later Hyde beat Stockport County Reserves to lift the league cup.

In 1945-46 Hyde won the Cheshire Senior Cup for the first time and in 1954 reached round one of the FA Cup, losing to a Workington side managed by Bill Shankly. In the following two seasons the club clinched back-to-back Cheshire League titles.

Hyde’s nickname, the Tigers, was adopted at the end of the 1960s when they were founder members of the Northern Premier League. They were expected to struggle but fought like Tigers for two seasons and finished seventh and eleventh. However, the club could not compete financially and returned to the Cheshire League in 1970.

It took ten years for Hyde to re-emerge as a force. In 1981-82 they swept the Cheshire League board and won election back to the NPL. Hyde returned to the first round of the FA Cup in 1983, losing at Burnley, and in 1989 made it to the semi-finals of the FA Trophy.

In 1986, Hyde took the radical step of selling Ewen Fields to Tameside Council so that a synthetic Baspograss pitch could be laid. They picked up several trophies, returned to the first round of the FA Cup (1994) and reached two more FA Trophy semi-finals.

Grass was reinstated in 1995 but as the 21st century dawned Hyde began to struggle. They finished second to Leigh in 1999-2000 but were relegated to the NPL first division three years later. They won the championship at the first attempt and immediately followed up with the NPL title in 2004-05.

Fortunes were mixed in National League North. Hyde were badly affected by the banking crisis of 2008 and the following year were actually wound up for a week.

In 2010, Hyde agreed a deal for Manchester City’s elite development squad to use Ewen Fields. The money secured the club’s immediate future but a decision to revert to the old name of Hyde FC,  repainting the ground blue from the traditional red and to stop wearing red shirts, divided the fans. A poor season followed, but under the management of Gary Lowe, the Tigers amazed everyone in 2011-12.

Beginning the campaign with ten consecutive wins, Hyde won the championship and promotion to the national division where they continued to surprise the pundits by finishing 18th and by beating clubs such as Wrexham, Hereford United, Luton Town and Grimsby Town.

Unfortunately Hyde were unable to continue competing at such a high level and suffered back-to-back relegations which have taken them back to the NPL.

In the spring of 2015 Hyde, back under the management of Gary Lowe, returned to the name of Hyde United and announced plans to turn the club into a supporters’ trust. Hyde United parted company with six games left of the 2015/16 season due to a poor run of results and appointed Darren Kelly as manager for the remaining games. However, Darren wasn’t able to prevent the team from their third successive relegation, this time to the Evo-Stik First Division North.

Darren Kelly was appointed first team manager during the close-season for the coming 2016/17 season after applications were invited for the vacant post, which attracted a large number of applicants and some from some notable names in football management.

Hyde United FC secured funding from Tameside Council in March of 2016. The investment was to help fund a programme to transform the ground and its connections with the local community by laying a FIFA 2* 3G pitch, which was completed in July 2016. It enabled the Hyde United Academy to move to Ewen Fields from its 5 year home at Knutsford. Which will enable the academy players train and gain experience from the first team.

The 2016/17 season did not start as expected with the squad only winning 6 of their first 24 games in the league. The first half of the season saw several players released that had not worked out and new players coming into the squad. The most significant signings were around Dec 16 and Jan 17, the additions of Paddy Miller, Matt Beadle Lawrence Hunter and Chris Sutherland were a turning point in the season. From late December, the team only lost 2 of their remaining 18 games, finally finishing 10th in the table.

The 2017/18 season was one of the best seasons the club has experienced in recent years, with the restructure of the divisions at step 4, a possible 4 teams could be promoted from any of the 6 step 4 divisions. The top 2 from each league would gain automatic promotion with the team with the best points per game average finishing 3rd across the 6 divisions would also gain automatic promotion, then the next 4 highest placed teams in the divisions would compete for the last promotion spot via play-offs. It was Hyde that gained that automatic 3rd place with a last minute winner from skipper Paddy Miller, away to Mossley in the last but one game of the season. Right up to the final games it was very close between Hyde and Scarborough for 2nd place, and Scarborough told 2nd spot by 3 points in the end.

It was also a season that saw the Tigers progress to the first round of the FA Cup for the first time in 26 years, with a home televised fixture against MK Dons. The Tiger lost 4-0, but it was a fantastic tribute to the work and effort everyone had put in at the club, and it produced some much needed funds into the football club. Funds that enabled the management team to strengthen the squad and make a real attempt at promotion, which eventually paid off. So after 2 seasons of being in the EvoStik North Division, Hyde return to the EvoStik Premier Division.

The 2019/20 season started with a new manager, the then assistant manager, Dave McGurk, taking over the reins, as manager of two and half season, Darren Kelly, stepped up to the role of Sporting Director and centre half, John McCombe taking the vacant assistant managers position. There were hopes of a decent finish in the league for the 2019/20 season, after finishing 10th in the previous season, but it looked like a tricky start with games away to the early favourites for the title, FC United and South Sheilds, in the first 3 games. But the Tigers got off to a good start, winning both of those away fixtures. It was an up and down season, but started to improve towards the end of the season, before the COVID-19 pandemic saw the season null and voided with Hyde sitting in 10th place and looking to improve on that position. The sudden end to the season saw the club robbed of two semi finals games in the League Cup and the Cheshire Senior Cup.

The extended gap to the end of the 2019/20 season and the start of the 2020/21 season didn’t see the club sit idle, in fact it was chance for the club to reclaim the ground by giving it a full refurb. The 2020/21 season sees the ground returned to its traditional red, all done with the help of the volunteers and supporters. The management team wasn’t idle either, quickly securing the services of many of the players from the 2019/20 season, and adding strength and competition to the squad with some new signings and on this date in 1930, Uruguay trounced Yugoslavia 6-1 to reach the first World Cup final.

OLYMPICS AND TWO GREATS

 26th July 1948 Following the end of the Second World War the first major world sporting event to be held was the 1948 Olympic Games in London. The official opening ceremony took place at Wembley on July 29th but three days earlier - Monday July 26th 1948 - saw the Olympic football tournament kick off with two Preliminary Round ties. In those matches Luxembourg beat Afghanistan 6-0 at the Goldstone Ground in Brighton (attendance 5,000) and the Netherlands defeated Ireland 3-1 at Fratton Park, Portsmouth in front of a 8,000 crowd. Great Britain were later to start their Olympic campaign beating Netherlands in a First Round tie at the more traditional London venue of Highbury with GB eventually progressing to the bronze medal match where they lost 5-3 to Denmark in front of 50,000 at Wembley. The top football crowd was 60,000, also at Wembley, who witnessed Sweden defeat Yugoslavia 3-1 to win the gold medal. 

One member of the GB team in 1948 was Scottish goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson who, 19 years later, was one of Celtic's Lisbon Lions who beat Inter-Milan to become the first British team to win the European Cup. Here is his "Obit".

Full name	Ronald Campbell Simpson
Date of birth	11 October 1930
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Date of death	19 April 2004 (aged 73)
Place of death	Edinburgh, Scotland
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)

On This Day – 26th July 1966.....         

Bobby Charlton scored two and Eusébio one as England beat Portugal 2-1 at Wembley in the semi-final of the World Cup. England would play West Germany - who had beaten the Soviet Union 2-1 the previous evening at Goodison - in the World Cup Final. And later......

Sir Bobby Charlton was awarded the prestigious Ballon d'Or award that same year, cementing his status as one of the game's greatest players.

The Manchester United great, died at the age of 86. He scored 49 goals in 106 appearances for England.

FLAGGING AT THE OLYMPICS

 25th July 2012

The 2012 Olympics hadn’t officially started when the football tournament hit a serious snag in Glasgow. The Women's match at Hampden Park between North Korea and Colombia was delayed by an hour, after the North Koreans protested, when a South Korean flag accompanied their team on the giant screen at the ground at the beginning of the event.

Olympic organisers naturally, apologised to North Korean athletes whose images were shown next to the South Korean flag. The mix-up delayed the women's football match, at Glasgow's Hampden Park on the first day of sporting action.

The North Korean women's football team walked off the pitch prior to their Olympic match after their images were shown on a screen beside a South Korean flag. Kick-off was scheduled for 19:45 BST but the game started over an hour late!!

North Korea beat Colombia 2-0 in the second of the Olympic matches held at Hampden Park on the Wednesday. Games organisers in London apologised to North Korean officials for the mistake. The error occurred when a video package was being shown ahead of kick-off, with the North Koreans noticing that their faces were being pictured alongside the South Korean flag.

The squad walked off and could only be persuaded to return when the teams were announced again with each player's face displayed next to the North Korean flag. The BBC's sports editor David Bond said, it was an "embarrassing mistake" and not the start Games organisers would have wanted on the first day of sporting action, but "no great harm was done"!!

Relations between the two Koreas are tense - they remain technically at war following the 1950-53 Korean conflict, which ended in an armistice. Speaking after the match, North Korea's coach Sin Ui Gun said: "Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved properly.

"Unfortunately, it took some time later for the broadcast to be done again properly and we made the decision to go on with the match." He added: "Our players cannot be shown with other flags, especially the South Korean one! "If this matter had not been solved, continuing would have been a nonsense."

A statement released by London 2012 organisers said: "Today ahead of the women's football match at Hampden Park, the South Korean flag was shown on a big screen video package instead of the North Korean flag. "Clearly that is a mistake, we will apologise to the team and the National Olympic Committee and steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again."  It was not immediately clear who had produced the video shown in the stadium!! Not surprising!!

London 2012 spokesman Andy Mitchell said: "The South Korean flag was shown in the video package on the screen before the kickoff and the North Koreans were naturally very upset about that. "We have made a full apology to the team and the North Korean NOC. A genuine mistake was made for which we apologise."

South Korea also faced North Korea in the first round of the men's Olympic table tennis team event, after the pair were drawn against each other on Wednesday!! You can find out the result!

25 July 2012 20:50 

Colombia	0–2	North Korea
		Kim Song-hui  39', 85'

at Hampden Park, Glasgow

Attendance: 18,900

Referee: Carol Anne Chenard (Canada)

The first event of the Olympics got under way at 1600 BST at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, on the Wednesday and ended in a win for Team GB over New Zealand in the women's football. Two matches also took place at the City of Coventry stadium.

Gold medal match

9 August 2012 19:45

United States	2–1	Japan
Loyd  8', 54'	Report	Ogimi  63'

Wembley

Attendance: 80,203

Referee: Bibiana Steinhouse (Germany)

IT'S A FIX!! OR NOT?

 24th July 1995 

On this day in 1995, Southampton goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, the Zimbabwean, Wimbledon keeper, Hans Segers and Aston Villa striker, John Fashanu were all charged with conspiracy to fix matches. After two trials the trio were cleared two years later. After a campaign by The Sun newspaper, Southampton goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar, Wimbledon keeper Hans Segers and Aston Villa striker, John Fashanu were all charged with conspiracy to fix matches. After two trials the trio were cleared two years later.

Bruce Grobbelaar: Filmed allegedly accepting money for match-fixingI bet they didn't see that coming.....

A journalist from The Sun newspaper has told a court that taped conversations by former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar prove its allegations of match-fixing. The newspaper's northern news editor, Peter Sherlock, told the High Court in London that Mr Grobbelaar's own admissions were "absolutely damning". And he said the response of the 41-year-old Zimbabwean, when confronted with the newspaper's allegations, had been "totally unsatisfactory". Mr Grobbelaar is suing the newspaper for libel over a series of articles published in 1994, which accused him of taking £40,000 to make sure Liverpool lost to Newcastle in 1993. It also claimed he blew his chance of making £125,000 by accidentally making a "sensational" save against Manchester United.

'Extremely evasive' Mr Sherlock supervised The Sun's investigation, which began after a former friend of Mr Grobbelaar's, Chris Vincent, helped the newspaper secretly videotape him talking about fixing matches to benefit a Far Eastern betting syndicate. On Tuesday Mr Sherlock told the court that Mr Grobbelaar's reaction to the claims had been "extremely evasive". "It reinforced my belief, which I held throughout the story, that Bruce Grobbelaar had something to hide - here was a man who had been caught out," he said. "He was chopping and changing his story all the time." Mr Sherlock, who had assigned two reporters to the story, said he had told them to proceed with "extreme caution". "It was a story that had to be checked out, starting with a zero point where we would publish nothing," he said.

'Anxious to be fair' The corroboration of Mr Vincent's story came through the videotapes, said Mr Sherlock, and concluded, six days before publication, with Mr Grobbelaar accepting a £2,000 payment from Mr Vincent. Mr Grobbelaar has said he made the comments on the tapes only to gather evidence of corruption against Mr Vincent. But Mr Sherlock said that if Mr Grobbelaar had told his reporters, when confronted, that he would pass the money on to the FA and expose Mr Vincent as corrupt, the story would not have been run "under any circumstances". "We were anxious to be extremely fair to Mr Grobbelaar...but he had no logical or legal explanation for his activities," he said.

Punitive damages The stories led to a court case in November 1997, in which Mr Grobbelaar and three co-defendants - former Wimbledon players Hans Segers and John Fashanu and Malaysian businessman Heng Suan Lim - were acquitted of match-fixing at Winchester Crown Court. Mr Grobbelaar has maintained throughout that he only gave advice on the possible outcome of games and did not fix matches. His case against The Sun includes a claim for punitive exemplary damages because he alleges that the newspaper published the story knowing it was false, or not caring if it was or not.The newspaper denies libel, claiming justification and qualified privilege. The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday.

22nd JULY-busy date

22nd July 1998: European football arrived in Birkenhead! Security fears saw Shelbourne move their home UEFA Cup Preliminary Round tie.1st Leg, against Rangers from Dublin to Tranmere Rovers FC, Prenton Park ground. A 6,047 crowd watched in amazement as the Irish side took a 3-0 half time lead against a Rangers side who  were playing for the first time under a foreign manager, Dick Advocaat. His first half time talk did the trick though....Rangers won the match 5-3!!! 

For Shelborne Scorers: Porrini after 7 mins og, Rutherford 42 mins, Morley 58 mins:

For Rangers: Albertz 59 mins Pen, and another Pen, 83 mins. Amato 72 mins and 81 mins. Von Bronckhurst 74 mins. Some comeback!

Same date 2002.......After plenty of speculation Manchester United signed Rio Ferdinand from Leeds for a British record transfer fee of £29,100,000. In December 2023, a 33-year-old man from Staffs was sent to prison for six months, having been found guilty of racially abusing Ferdinand at Molineux in May 2021. Ferdinand was working there as a TV pundit for a match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester United.

and on 22nd July 2006
Arsenal played their first match at the Emirates, the Gunners defeating Ajax 2-1 in the testimonial match for Dennis Bergkamp....Yes it's him.

EXETER AND ENFIELD

Exeter City is a professional English Football League club sited in Devon, England. The club competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the Football League, following relegation in the 2025-26 season. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to speculation and debate. The club is owned by its supporters through the club's Supporters' Trust.

Exeter City was founded in 1901 and began playing their games at St Jame's Park, where they remain to this day. They joined Division One of the Southern League in 1904. After a club tour to South America in 1914 (see below) to generate awareness of football in the continent, the club became the first side to play a national Brazilian team. As a result, City and the Brazilian side Fluminese are now also partner clubs. Exeter were invited to help create the Football League Third Division in 1920. They were assigned to the Third Division South the next year and won the Third Division South Cup in 1934. They remained in the division until becoming founder members of the Fourth Division in 1958.

On 21st July 1914, the Football Association was asked by its Argentine counterparts to send out an English team to help improve the standard of Argentinian football. So on the boat to Argentina was sent a non-league side, Exeter City, who were then members of the Southern League. They played eight matches in Argentina, losing just once. They then agreed to play three matches in Brazil on the way back. In the first of those matches they beat a team of English expats 3-0. The second match was against one of the two major regional teams in Brazil. Brazil was - is - a huge country and their football was based in two separate regional centres - Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. That second match was against the Rio select side and Exeter won 5-3. The third match - played on July 21st 1914 - was against a combined Rio and Sao Paulo side and was considered to be the first match played by the Brazilian national team. And in their first match Brazil beat Exeter City 2-0 and the fans certainly came out to witness the occasion. OK, not 200,000 at the Maracana but the it was thought that Fluminense's 6,000 capacity Estadio das Laranjeiras ground probably had 10,000 present in it to witness the match. So when you think of Brazil winning the World Cup give a thought to the part Exeter City played played in starting it all off!

AND

21st July 1964
Tottenham Hotspur forward John White was killed by lightning when sheltering under a tree during a thunderstorm at the Crews Hill golf course in Enfield. 'The Ghost' had been an ever-present in Spurs double-winning side of 1960/61 and had played 22 times for Scotland. He was a wonderful footballer, an inside-forward and one of the reasons why I was drawn to Spurs as a ten year old. The other reason was that Spurs won The Double in 1960-61 Season!! Simple!

KEVIN KEEGAN RIP

Today it has been announced that Kevin Keegan has died at the age of 75. 

It was announced in January that the former England player and manager had been diagnosed with stage four cancer, with his family revealing he was set to begin treatment.

Today, "It is with immense sadness that we announce that Kevin Keegan has passed away at the age of 75," a statement from Keegan's family read. "The former England player and manager had been battling cancer and was surrounded by his wife and daughters in his final moments. "Kevin, a double Ballon D'or winner, was a much loved husband, father and grandfather. The family would like to thank Kevin's incredible medical team for all their support. This is a hugely difficult time and they are requesting space and privacy."

Image:Keegan was considered one of the best players of his generation and enjoyed a stellar playing career, making almost 750 club appearances, lifting the First Division trophy three times with Liverpool and winning the Ballon d'Or back-to-back in 1978 and 1979 while playing for Hamburg in the Bundesliga.

Image:Liverpool's Ian Callaghan, Kevin Keegan and Ray Clemence parade the FA Cup

Image:Above, Liverpool striker Kevin Keegan during a match with QPR. Seven years after his retirement, he took his first coaching role as manager of a struggling Newcastle team in February 1992. The Magpies were in danger of being relegated to Division Two but Keegan kept them up and then led them to the Premier League in his first full season in charge. Then, in 1996, he took Newcastle to within touching distance of their first top-tier title since 1927.

Kevin Keegan's major honours as a player. 

• Liverpool: First Division x3, FA Cup, European Cup, UEFA Cup x2
• Hamburg: Bundesliga
• Ballon d'Or. 

Newcastle were Premier League title favourites for most of that 1995/96 season, at one stage being 12 points clear of Manchester United. But a dramatic collapse from Keegan's side coupled with a Sir Alex Ferguson-inspired Man Utd winning 13 of their last 15, eventually saw Newcastle finish second by four points.

Late defeats at the hands of Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the run-in saw United eventually haul them in. As the pressure mounted on a beleaguered Keegan, who was desperate to deliver the title to a passionate Newcastle fanbase, his infamous "I'd love it.." post-match interview after victory at Leeds, aimed at Sir Alex, among others, unfortunately characterised his time at St James' Park.

Kevin Keegan's major honours as a manager

• Newcastle United: Football League First Division
• Fulham: Football League Second Division
• Man City: Football League First Division

He would go on to manage England, for whom he had scored 21 goals in 63 games as a player, between February 1999 and October 2000 - resigning minutes after a 1-0 defeat to Germany in the last game played at the old Wembley Stadium.

Image:Kevin Keegan celebrates scoring against Scotland at Wembley in 1979

His time as national boss also saw England fail to get out of the group stage at Euro 2000, despite a 1-0 win over Germany, as defeats by Portugal and Romania piled on the pressure even before that defeat at the hands of Dietmar Hamann's free-kick four months later in the first qualifier for the 2002 World Cup. 

A spell at Manchester City followed, which included promotion to the Premier League in 2002 as Division One champions, but Keegan left the club in March 2005, initially announcing his retirement from football. Keegan made an emotional return to Newcastle in 2008, but only lasted eight months following tensions with the board and owner Mike Ashley.